Your manager puts some time in your diary for a “catch up”. Those two words are enough to make your heart sink. The same heart-dropping feeling you get when you think you’ve lost your mobile phone before realising it’s still in your pocket. “Catch up” seems disconcertingly vague. Your immediate reaction: “What have I done wrong?”

You notice that the meeting isn’t set to take place on the comfy seats. Neither is it set to take place in the most convenient meeting room in the entire building, which a stone’s throw away from your desk. Oh dear. It’s a room on a floor outside of your territory, and you feel your heart sink even further into the pit of your stomach.

Five painful hours for your mind to mull over all the possibilities of what this could be about: “Did my manager really notice that I spent 15 minutes sitting on the toilet, scrolling idly through Facebook? I thought I just cut it short enough for no one to notice”.

Hold on; there’s someone from HR here too. Everyone is looking very serious. Out the corner of your eye, you notice some familiar personal objects from your desk, sitting in a cardboard box. Then boom. They drop the redundancy bombshell on you without warning. You’re asked to hand over your security card before being marched off the premises, box in arms, like you’ve defrauded the place. You’re not even allowed back to your desk to say goodbye to your colleagues. It’s brutal. So much for loyalty.

Over the next few weeks, you experience a rollercoaster of emotions: shock, anger, guilt, sadness, anxiety, and even delusion – you’re convinced they are going to call you up, tell you that it’s all been a big mistake and that they want you back. What about all those extra hours you gave them? Hopefully, relief is the overriding emotion that conquers all.

Many people perceive a permanent job to be a secure job. The reality is that your employer can drop you like a hot potato. If you’re working as a contractor, but somewhat reluctantly, and would snap anyone’s hand off who offered you a permanent contract, then maybe it’s time to consider the benefits freelancing can bring.

More cashA contractor can take home up to twice as much as a permanent employee. However, you need to balance this against not receiving the benefits of sick pay and annual leave. As a freelancer, you can claim back on expenses incurred, such as food, travel, and equipment.

VarietyNo one wants to experience Groundhog Day over and over and over again. Contract work can provide constant stimulation for people who enjoy variety: a range of industries and projects, the chance to meet new people, work from home, on-site, or maybe even with the sand between your toes in a beautiful location.

OpportunityWith each project you take on, you will learn something new. With the rise of technology, the world is feeling smaller. You can work remotely for a client abroad, without even having to leave the comfort of your bed.

Self-brandingAs a contractor, you can freelance through your own company. Make it personal and pick a name for your company that defines you, your values and your brand. The possibilities are endless; you can build a huge online presence and client base. Going self-employed is your chance to release the entrepreneur within you.

FreedomHow you work, when you work, who you work with, the types of projects you want to take on, and when to take a holiday. No more “You can’t have between Christmas and New Year’s off” heartache because Carol got in there first, and management feel they need four people to cover a two-person job. Now you call the shots – you’re the boss.Your parents and grandparents were of a generation when working for the same company for 30+ years was standard practice. That’s become a thing of the past. People who move around more tend to earn more. No need to fear too many company names on your CV – these can be consolidated into ‘projects’, rather than listing each one as a different job and allowing your CV to overflow to three pages.

If the thought of doing your accounts and paperwork as a contractor fills you with dread, then don’t worry. If you don’t want to be responsible for the admin, there are plenty of people who do, and you can compare them here. This way you can contract while operating like an employee.

“Nothin’ lasts forever, and we both know hearts can change”, sang Axl Rose. This is undoubtedly true for a permanent job. Maybe the time you’re next standing behind the yellow line in the cold November rain, you’ll be wishing that you’d made the jump from employed to self-employed.

Privacy Notice

Contractor Supermarket Limited Limited (hereafter called Contractor Supermarket Limited) respects your privacy and will process your data in a fair and lawful way. This privacy notice outlines the way in which Contractor Supermarket Limited collects, processes and shares your data and how long we retain it for.

Where we get our data from We will received your data from:
Directly from you via phone, email or on our website; Introducers; Suppliers; Analytics providers; Advertising networks; Search information providers; Companies house; Electoral register; Land registry and Other publicly available sources.

What we use the information forWe will use the data for:
Providing you with the services that you have requested from ourselves; Marketing and market research; Fraud prevention and processing payments to third parties.

Contractor Supermarket Limited may from time to time use aggregated, or redacted data for any purpose. Although this comes from your personal data it is not considered personal data, as it does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity, and we are free to use this at any time.

Legal basis for processing data

Contractor Supermarket Limited will process personal data for the purposes already stated on one or more of the following legal basis:

Consent – you have consented to us using your personal data by adding your details to our website and reading this privacy notice. You can withdraw consent at any time by directing an email to [email protected];

Contractual obligation– It is necessary for us to process your data to perform the contract between Contractor Supermarket Limited and yourself, or to take any necessary steps at your request prior to entering into this contract;

Legal obligations – we may need to process data in order to fulfil Legal obligations for example audit purposes;

Legitimate interests – we may use your personal data to operate, promote or improve our services or use your data for analytics or in order to protect our business.

Contractor Supermarket Limited will use your data for the purpose for which it was collected, unless we consider that we reasonably need to use it for another reason, if that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we would like to use your data for any other purposes we will notify you and provide explanation as to the legal basis under which we will be able to use your data.

Data retention
Contractor Supermarket Limited will only keep your data:
As long as necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations or As long as necessary to fulfil legal and regulatory obligations

Contractor Supermarket Limited will determine the length of time we can keep your data by considering the above and:

Potential risk from unauthorised use or disclosure; the purposes for which we process your data and If we can achieve the same results some other way without requiring your data

We may anonymise your data allowing us to retain for as long as we wish as it can no longer be associated to yourself.

Transfer of data
Contractor Supermarket Limited ensure that there are adequate jurisdictional data protection regulations in place should your data be transferred outside of the EEA(you will be informed if this is necessary), Your data is currently stored inside the EEA and Contractor Supermarket Limited have data protection policies, procedures and safeguards in place to protect the security of your data.

Your rights You have the right:

To be informed– we will tell you when we collect data what we are going to do with it, primarily through this privacy notice;

Of access – you can contact Contractor Supermarket Limited in righting to request the information that we hold about you;

To Erasure – you can ask for your information to be deleted( this is not an absolute right and will depend on any legal restrictions) We will keep a list of your wish to be deleted to ensure you do not end up in our database again at any future time;

To rectification – you can ask for any information to be amended if it is inaccurate or incomplete;

To restrict processing – tells us to stop processing your data but allows us to keep hold of it for other agreed purposes;

To data portability – to transfer information to another business at your request (most used for instance such as changing bank accounts);

To object – to use of your data for marketing and profiling for marketing purposes. Our Legitimate interests do not outweigh your rights and freedoms, therefore you can cease us processing based on our legitimate interests;

To withdraw consent – you may withdraw consent to the processing of your data at any time, you can withdraw this consent by emailing or calling the following: [email protected], +353 71 932 0877;

To complain – if Contractor Supermarket Limited do not satisfactorily deal with your complaint you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Data Security
Contractor Supermarket Limited take data protection responsibilities very seriously and have ensured that your data is treated fairly, lawfully and with the respect it deserves. Contractor Supermarket Limited have took adequate measures to protect your data from being accidently lost, used, accessed or disclosed in any way that has not been authorised . We have these procedures in place to prevent breaches, however we shall inform you and the relevant regulatory bodies should any data breach occur.